Only Saudi Arabia was ranked worst in the ratings that covered the 58 countries around the globe that account for 90 percent of energy-related CO2 emissions.
The Climate Change Performance Index was compiled by Climate Action Network Europe and Germanwatch. The index was released last week at the UN Conference on Climate Change being held in Durban, South Africa.
The Islamic Republic had a delegation at the conference headed by Mohammad-Javad Mohammadizadeh, the head of Iran’s Environmental Protection Agency. In his speech to the conference, the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) reported he castigated the major industrial countries for failing to meet their commitments under the Kyoto Protocol.
IRNA did not report any response by him to Iran’s low ranking on the index, where the Islamic Republic was rated far below the countries Mohammadi-zadeh criticized.
The index is based 50 per-cent on trends in CO2 emissions,30 percent on the total volume of CO2 emissions and 20 percent on subjective assessments of each country’s national climate change policy by more than 200 specialists from around the world.
The report on the index said Kazakhstan, Iran and Saudi Arabia were put at the bottom of the rankings both for high emissions and a trend to worse emissions.
The top-rated country was Sweden with a score of 68.1, followed by Britain at 67.4 and Germany at 67.2. The top 20 were dominated by European states with only Brazil and Mexico from outside Europe making the upper tier.
The United States ranked low in 49th place with a score of 48.5. Canada was 51st with a score of 46.3, Russia at 52nd with 45.1, China at 54th with 44.6 and then a big dropoff in score to Iran in 57th place with 36.0 and Saudi Arabia in 58th place with just 24.5.